GREECE JOURNAL ENTRY
September
11, 2001
PIRAEUS, GREECE
Today we were scheduled to take a tour of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Mike was feeling tired and since he had already seen the Acropolis, he decided to take the day off. The boys and I boarded the bus and Andrew and Alex pulled out their books and read instead of listening to the history of Greece. I have to admit that I was tuning the guide out as well. She was not nearly the caliber of previous guides and her English was hard to understand.
The first stop was the stadium where the first modern Olympic games were held in 1908 (I think). The kids ran the track and pretended to be Olympic athletes. As we drove through Athens, I was struck with (there is no nice way to say this) how unattractive the city was.
The Acropolis was the next stop. It was built on a hill and originally was the political and cultural center of Athens. There were a great deal of tourists at the Acropolis and lots of stray dogs all over. Andrew and Alex had one goal in mind and one goal only - to pet every stray dog at the Acropolis. They were mangy beasts and the kids wanted to take each one aboard the ship so we could take them home.
The Parthanon was a site to see. It was built from 477 - 438 BC and it was built in honor of Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess of Athens. It is a huge structure, measuring 70 meters long by 31 meters wide. We left the ruins and the dogs to return to the ship. Or so we thought.
The tour guide said we would make one short shopping stop. The bus pulled onto a street barely large enough for a car to pass, let alone a bus. There was one shop on the street. The kids were so excited, they asked permission to stay on the bus and read! I got off in search of java. When I returned, I decided to forgo the shop and get on the bus (thank goodness!). Suddenly there was a commotion behind the bus and apparently a police officer had told the bus to move immediately. The bus took off without most of the passengers! I guess the driver intended to find a place up the road to stop but there was no space. The bus continued on for 10 minutes sans the majority of the passengers!
The bus driver parked the bus and we waited. And waited. And waited. I guess the tour guide called the bus driver because eventually she showed up on foot. She and the bus driver had a chat (since children may read this let's just leave the nature of the discussion at that) and then she went back to retrieve the remaining passengers. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, she and the wayward passengers showed up. The entire process, which was supposed to take 15 minutes, took well over an hour. What was really aggravating about the experience was that the only reason we stopped at the shop in the first place was to benefit the tour guide. I'm convinced that she was paid a percentage of what her group spent at that shop.